As the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (OCCP) informed the President of OCCP has given her consent for the acquistion by Spartan Capital Holding (de facto Zygmunt Solorz-Żak – Polish billionaire, according to Forbes his net worth is over 2 billion $) – Polkomtel, one of the four main mobile telephone operators in Poland .
The information relates to the record LBO – takeover deal – agreed upon in early July 2011, for 15.1 billion zloty ($5.5 billion) Zygmunt Solorz-Żak decided to acquire Polkomtel. The price excluded about 3 billion zloty of debt and divident due to the sellers (Vodafone, oile refiner PKN Orlen SA, power utility giant PGE SA, copper producer KGHM Polska Miedź SA and coal trader Węglokoks SA.
According to Polish Competition Law Act from 2007, because the combined turnover of participants to the transaction exceeded the equivalent of EUR 50 mln in the territory of Poland, it required the consent issued by the President of OCCP. Under the law, when conducting the proceedings concerning the concentration of undertakings, the OCCP may issue a consent, impose strictly specified conditions on the merging entities, or prohibit the concentration.
The conducted analysis of the national market of telecommunication services providers’ has indicated that the intended concentration shall not result in a significant restriction of competition.
In 2011 the President of OCCP granted as much as 121 consents to transactions and 2 prohibitions to transactions. The average timelimit for conducting proceedings regarding decisions allowing for concentration is 57 days.